1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rear combination lamp for a vehicle.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 9-304563, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have heretofore been known various rear combination lamps. For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 6-275117 discloses a rear combination lamp as shown in FIG. 11. In FIG. 11, a base plate 100 of a rectangular tray-like shape is defined by a rectangular back plate 101 and a peripheral wall 102 formed perpendicularly on a peripheral edge portion of the back plate 101, and the peripheral wall 102 is notched or removed at one corner portion of the base plate 100, and a connector 120 is mounted on this corner portion. Holding ribs 103 for holding wires W in position, press-connecting ribs 104 for holding the wires W for press-connecting purposes, and fixing bosses 105 for fixing sockets 130 are formed on an upper surface of the back plate 101.
A wire groove 103a, having a width slightly smaller than the thickness or diameter of the wire W, is formed in an upper surface of the holding rib 103, and similarly, a wire groove 104a is formed in an upper surface of the press-connecting rib 104. The socket 130 has a pair of fixing legs 134 each having a fixing hole 134a, and press-connecting terminals 132 each having a downwardly-open, slit-like notch, are received within the socket 130.
For installing the wires W in the rear combination lamp of the above construction, each wire W is first pressed into the wire grooves 103a of the holding ribs 103, and is held thereby, and also is connected to the wire groove 104a in the press-connecting rib 104. Then, the fixing holes 134a, formed respectively in the fixing legs 134 of each socket 130, are aligned respectively with the fixing bosses 105 on the back plate 101, and the socket 130 is pressed, thereby fitting the fixing holes 134a respectively in the fixing bosses 105. As a result, the wire W, held in the wire groove 104a in the press-connecting rib 104, is press-fitted into the notch in the press-connecting terminal 132 received within the socket 130, and at the same time a sheath of the wire W is cut, and the terminal within the socket is brought into contact with a conductor of the wire W, so that the socket 130 and the wire W are electrically connected together. Finally, lamps are attached respectively to the sockets 130, thus completing the assembling operation.
A rear combination lamp as shown in FIG. 12 is disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 3-20979. In FIG. 12, spring retainer plates 201 and socket support bases 202 are formed upright on a base plate 200. An electrically-conductive socket 203, having a pair of lamp holding portions 204 of an arcuate cross-section, is fitted in the socket support base 202. A downwardly-extending spring tongue 213 is formed integrally on a top plate 212 of the socket 203.
In this combination lamp, wiring is provided using a flexible printed circuit board 210. First, terminal portions 211 of the flexible printed circuit board 210 are passed respectively through slits (not shown) formed through the base plate 200, and each terminal portion 211 is inserted between the spring tongue 213 and lamp holding portions 204 of the associated socket 203. Then, a lamp 220, having a lamp terminal 221 at its rear end, is fitted between the lamp holding portions 204, so that the lamp terminal 221 and the terminal portion 211 of the flexible printed circuit board are electrically connected together.
However, the above conventional rear combination lamps have the following problems. In the rear combination lamp disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 6-275117, there is required the base plate 100 which has many fixing ribs 103 and the press-connecting ribs 104 for the purpose of arranging and installing the wires W, and therefore the costs of the component parts are high, and besides the operation for press-connecting the socket 130 to the wires W is troublesome, and therefore the productivity has been poor.
In the rear combination lamp disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 3-20979, also, there is required the base plate 200, and it is necessary to prepare various flexible printed circuit boards 210 for various kinds of vehicles having different structures and sizes, and these have increased the production cost.